


The Dawn of Stone

by CovenBossSteve



Series: The Great Habari [1]
Category: The Owl House (Cartoon), Witchsona Twitter
Genre: Death, Forced adoption, Kids separated from parents, Major Original Character(s), Original Character(s), The Owl House AU, Torture, Witchsona Twitter - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:02:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27660412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CovenBossSteve/pseuds/CovenBossSteve
Summary: The raid of a rogue witch cramp has left the Coven with a large collection of wild witches, more so than the Coven is used to having at one time. How they are to deal with this gallery has been left up for one, Habari the Great, one of the Coven's highest-ranking and eldest members, to decide.
Series: The Great Habari [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2022619
Kudos: 4





	The Dawn of Stone

It was a cold, autumn afternoon, 1990. Habari was sitting in his office making his way through the large pile of paperwork stacked on and around his desk that never truly seemed to come to a close. Just endlessly and repeatedly adding onto itself as it grew. Not that the Coven member minded, though. The simple act of filling out each sheet as he slid it across his desk offered a continuous distraction for whatever form of a mind or consciousness his magical body withheld.

The breeze outside was quiet yet just strong enough to create a near silent scratching on his office window. It helped add to the calm atmosphere of the moment. A state of being that was rare for the Coven. But when it came all its members welcomed it and its peace.

Moments like these had become especially rare over the last year or two with there being a sudden but welcomed rise in the number of wild witches being captured by the Coven. Before this period the Coven would’ve been lucky to straggle one or two of them in a single month. Within the same period now it wasn’t rare for them to be bringing in ten or twelve. It was rather a lot of work gathering them, of course. But Habari and many of his fellow higher ups were confident that at the rate they were going, any major signs or strings of rebellion left would soon be crushed from the Isles.

It was because of this very fact that the knock that came to Habari’s door shattered the silence. Knock. Knock. Knock. The sounds came in quick succession, drawing the higher up's attention up from his desk to allow the knocker permission to enter through word “. Come in.” The man said, looking back down to his work as a common Coven guard made their way into the room, opening and closing the door carefully as they made entrance “. What is it now,” he asked directly. The guard walked over to the man’s desk in response, placing down an executive order signed by Belos himself directed towards Habari “. Well, you see sir. The Coven has recently captured sixty-seven wild witches.”

Habari looked up from the paperback towards the guard. A small level of disbelief in his voice as he spoke “. Sixty-seven? Do you kid?” They shook their head slowly, turning down slightly “. No, sir. A collection of soldiers, high and low ranking, recently came across a rather large camp of them. Attached to that current file you will find paperwork with the names of each captured witch as well as all the casualties towards Coven personnel that resulted from the raid launched on said camp.” Even as the guard spoke, Habari had already begun looking through the files and sure enough, everything the guard had said checked out. Sixty-seven wild witches captured and charged in a single night. Though emotionally neutral, Habari was still surprised to see such a large catch. Significantly larger than any Habari had seen before it, frankly.

“Well now. As interesting and as important as this information is. Why exactly has Belos given it to me in such a personal manner?” To his question, the guard pulled out yet another piece of paper which they handed to the man, the recipient in question taking it with care “. Belos has requested for you specifically to handle the preparations and plans for the petrification of these witches. He assumed you to be up to the task, sir.” The guard said the line with no snark. They said it without much of any feeling, really. Though they hid it well, the guard was desperate to keep this visit as short as possible. The man had never done anything to them, personally. No. In fact, this was the first time they had ever even been this close to Habari. But the man just managed to radiate energy so imposing it could rival that of Belos. Maybe it was the man’s tall, macular frame that clocked in at a towering 7’2, contrasting with the slow calculation he approached every minute action. Perhaps part of it came down to his look, more specifically his mask. The way the blood red borns differed so noticeably from the medieval bronze color that painted the rest of its shape, only broken by the dark, soulless eye holes enunciated with slight, darkened indents directly below them. Maybe it was all of it. Who knows? Whatever it was, any lower ranking member that came near old Habari the Great could feel his power. Feel his rank. As every detail of the man reeked it and wrapped around those unlucky enough to be in his presence.

Habari sat the papers down “. Tell Belos I would like to speak with him, please.” The guard nodded before leaving the room with hidden haste to alert the Emperor of Habari’s request. The said man stood up from his chair and made his way over to his office’s singular window, looking out towards the direction of the Comformitorium. In this state, the Coven elder made quick work to collect his thoughts “. Keeping that many wild witches in a singular place is already dangerous enough. Keeping them for any extended period of time only increases the chance of catastrophe. The choice of doing nothing to prevent such an event from occurring is a foolish one. I’d even go as far as to label it as completely idiotic. Hopefully, my words will be enough to convince Belos that my plan is the Coven’s best course of action to take at the moment. I suppose we shall see.”

He waited a few more moments, looking down below as a collection of guards were wheeling in some of the aforementioned witches towards the Castle. Likely for interrogation “. I do hope he will see.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The giant heart of Belos’ throne room beat slowly, helping all guards set in the room keep track of the passing seconds to the end of their shifts. One guard in particular, the last one on the left nearest to the door, was about ready to fall asleep before the loud creak of the throne room store sounded, saving them as Habari stepped inside the room. He closed the door behind without even looking before making his way towards the Emperor. Once he reached a distance he deemed short enough, he got down to kneel before the leader as the leader of the Isles looked down upon him “. I am at your service, Emperor Belos.”

The man in the antler adorned mask raised his relaxed head from his hand, releasing his elbow placed upon the armrest of his throne as well. Carefully laying his arm down, the Emperor sat straight up and spoke “. Habari. I thought I had asked you to get to work on all of those wretched witches we’ve got our hands on recently. I hope you’re not slacking off now.” Habari finally looked back up, turning his own helmet towards his ruler to refute his statement “. Never sir. I merely come to you at the moment seeking approval for a plan I have to more effectively deal with our current captives.” The Emperor leaned back into his chair, cautious but intrigued at Habari’s words “. This had better be good.”

“Thank you, sir.” Habari began “. You see it has come to my attention that our raiding of the rogue camp has left us with a count of sixty-seven wild witches all at once. This sire, concerns me” The heart beats slower with Belos’ interest rising now with the duration of Habari’s speech growing “. And why is that, Habari?” The mild echo that the Emperor’s mask created chilled all in the room but the man right in front of him. None of them said it, but they knew each and every single one of them were looking over towards the current interaction, curious as to what the conclusion between these two masked beings would be “. I do not intend to undermine your security or the power of our army, sir. But I fear that keeping such a high collection of rogues in one place for an extended period of time is rather dangerous, and it only gets more so as the days progress.” Belos’ mask clinks as they lean to Habari “. Are you recommending we keep some of them in the Castle, now? I would’ve thought a member as old as you would know better than present an idea that foolish to me.” “. No sir. You are correct in your assumption that I would never present to you an idea that ridiculous. No. Instead, I propose to you the idea that we increase the size of the cage from holding a mere single prisoner to instead ten.”

The heart slowed “.You do know how much time it would take to do that as well, aren’t you? We’d have to redesign the entire stage for such a plan.” Habari nods understandingly. This opposition had been expected and taken into consideration whilst conjuring up his plan. As such, Habari was more than ready to defend his stance to the end. He spoke “. I understand where you are coming from, sir. But I ask for you to please hear me out before casting your final decision. You see, with the sudden rise in arrests the Coven has been having, I feel cases that, while not as extreme as our current one but still very much in a similar ballpark, may grow to be more common. I understand the risk we run by keeping such a higher number of them in concentration for an extended period of time. I even mentioned such at the beginning of my own speech. But I feel you will soon see the benefit of enacting such changes. Imagine, now, of instead of only petrifying one or two witches at a time, leading to us either keeping a large number of them still in a room while their friends are turned to stone or kept at the Comformitorium where they could easily hatch a plan to rile up the prisoners and the like, we could be removing ten or twelve at a time. Fewer of them in a singular room at any given moment as well as removing and dropping their numbers from our captivity would significantly decrease the dangers of having so many of them at once, I do believe.” Habari closed off his argument with a slow, respectful bow to the king ahead of him.

Emperor Belos sat still for a moment, turning his head up slightly in thought “. Hmm?” He let out “. Alright, Habari. You’ve convinced me. I grant you permission to give your little plan a chance.” Habari turned up slowly to Belos. His voice rung of a false surprise to the response “. Truly?” “. Yes. On one condition. Which is less a condition and more just advice. That being: Do not disappoint me, Habari. Understood?”

To his question, Habari merely stood up from his knee, taking one final bow as he made his way to the door, letting out one final response before closing the door “. Understood, sir.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The loud sounds of construction could be heard for likely a mile as the Construction Coven began work on increasing the size of the Conformitorium lift that led up to the Petrification area. Habari looked on at their work as he divided his attention between them and a collection of smaller documents that lay before him. Some related to the man’s current main assignment of handling the large surge of wild witches still held in Coven custody. Others were, of course, just the usual paperwork that Habari was more than accustomed to.

Little happened for the first two weeks of the lift’s construction which had been just about finished by that point. That was until a low ranking scout came by one afternoon. November 23rd, 1990. They came running through the door with a rather large ruckus stemming from armor that was likely a size or two too small causing them to trip and fumble around. They came to a halt in front of Habari’s makeshift desk, panting out in a desperate reach for any amount of air they could obtain. Putting their hands on the desk for support, much to Habari’s disapproval, the scout looked at him.

“I… I… I… I… I come… I come with news… news from... from the Emperor.” Habari looked them down. He wasn’t a fan of his work time being stripped from him to instead entertain some incompetent scout who could barely coblle a sentence together. These exact thoughts Habari would’ve uttered if it weren’t for the fact they would eat up more precious time that he simply didn’t have at the moment. So, he bit his tongue, placing a hand on the scout’s shoulder and forcing them up “. Stand up straight, please. You are addressing one of your higher ups. You really ought to present yourself with at least some level of dignity.” 

The scout brought one hand folded behind their back and another raised up in a solute “. Of course! Sir! I hope you will accept my deepest apologies for my insolence, sir!” “. Oh, hush now. No need to overdo it. But please, enough empty guilt. What is this news you speak of now?” The scout put their arm down to pull out a piece of paper which they handed to the higher up “. As you’ll read there, sir. Upon revisiting the rogue witch camp, our guards apprehended another one of the camp’s inhabitants. Bringing our total number of captives up to sixty-eight, sir.” Habari shifted through the papers as he spoke “. Then I suppose it is rather a gift then that construction on the new lift is just about at completion.” “. Agreed, sir. But I’m afraid that’s not it. You see upon further searching our parties found a large collection of children hiding in the camp. The theory is that during the original raid, the rogue witches cast some spell to keep these children hidden. This was confirmed, sir, when the last witch confessed to have been ordered to run away from camp for a brief time before returning to rescue the kids. Upon interrogation with our current captives, we were able to confirm that all of these children do indeed belong to our current roster of wild witches, sir.”

As he spoke, Habari read through the reports of the children and skimmed through the provided text of all the rogue witches' interrogations. He laid the paper down on his desk “. So I suppose Belos would like me to decide as to how exactly we deal with these children?” The scout nodded “. Correct, sir.” Habari pushed himself back upon his chair, fingers interlaced together as he entered a period of thought. A creak of metal could be heard as the fingers of his black gauntlets rubbed against one another “. No final decision is needed right this moment. Though Emperor Belos would like an answer-” “. Give them up for adoption and make sure they find proper homes as soon as possible. And I mean immediately. I won’t allow any final visits with the parents now, either. Since they’ve already been separated a couple of days I find reintroducing them all together again now would only create unwanted drama and make separating these parties far more difficult. The emotional connection would be rekindled and much harder to cut through at that point. These witches have given us the perfect opportunity to give their children more responsible parents that will teach them the proper way to act in this society. These kids are young. Impressionable. They still have a chance at good, proper lives. Unlike their sorry excuse for parents.”

“...is that all… sir?” They asked, a clear level of discomfort in their voice. They knew no matter what the Coven had decided to do it wouldn’t have been pretty. But just the utter lack of feeling in Habari’s tone. It made it seem as if he viewed the kids as nothing more than a collection of young cogs. Cogs that needed to be prepped and prepared to fit into the greater mechanism of society with little thought of their individual happiness. The scout kept quiet though. Choosing to just respond to their superior with silence.

Habari wasn’t even looking at them at this point. Opting instead now to dedicate most of his time to write out a more intricate plan down on a blank sheet of paper “. Further details need to be planned out, which I should have by the end of the day. As it stands I would appreciate it if you went ahead and reported the plan I’ve given you so far to the Emperor.” The scout paused for a moment, taking a couple more deep breaths, no longer out of exhaustion, however. They nodded “. Understood, sir.” They carefully slinked out of the room as Habari returned to building upon the base of his plan.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

November 25th, 1990. The Coven elder stood tall as he watched a large collection of guards move to and fro as they prepped the witches for transportation over to the Conformitorium. One witch in particular that passed by the man caught his attention. She seemed to be in her early thirties, with long, curly, red hair, and a single blue eye. Her skin was pale despite the rest of her body being a pitch black shade. She stared Habari down. A look of pure disgust and hatred for all around her. But none more so than Habari at that moment. Not that it mattered to him, as even if her perception of him mattered at all in his eyes it would hardly matter by the end of the day.

He turned to a nearby guard who had been enlisted to oversee the operation via his orders “. When do you propose these witches will arrive at the Conformitorium?” He asked “. The first cart should arrive by 10am at the latest, sir.” A silent nod came in response. Habari had ordered the guards to only keep about ten witches per cage, with each cage beginning its journey ten minutes after the previous as to avoid having too many of them near each other at once. Reducing a now almost nonexistent risk.

Habari made a weighty and slow turn on his heel, making his way now for the Conformitorium.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rustling of carts could be heard in the distance as the first of many of them entered the building. Habari stood in the petrification arena. The infamous statue was now fully ready for the events that were about to follow as Habari stood near its lever.

Habari’s silence was in heavy contrast with the roar of the crowd down below. Some of the Isles citizens screamed with cries of support for the Coven with disgust lacing their tongues towards the convicted witches' misuse of magic. There had also been two or three people that had screamed open opposition to the events that were about to unfold. But Habari had made it so they had been quickly detained and moved to be dealt with properly by the Conformitorium staff.

With that little distraction out of the way, all there was left to do was sit there and wait for the criminals to come.

Moments.

Minutes.

Each slipped by.

Until.

… a creak. The creak of the lift. Habari turned his head slightly to look towards the now significantly larger cage as his suspicions were confirmed. He looked on to see the floor from within the cage rise up to reveal about eleven witches, all sat down and curled around each other as fear and sadness bit them with a fury every moment they remained alive now. A woman could be seen crying into what was likely her husband’s shoulder as she quietly let out words and horrid pleas that Habari could not hear from where he stood. Two others, twin brothers, wrapped each other in one of the tightest hugs Habari thinks he had ever seen. He could tell that they found comfort with each other in their final moments as well as in the fact that, even in death, they wouldn’t be separated from one another. There was also a rather tall man, somewhere between 6’5 or 6’6, that sat alone at the front right corner of the cage. He looked onwards towards the sea of people below him as they cheered for the death of him and his friends. A look of hatred on his face took shape that seemed so painful, so utterly intense, that it looked as if he was on the brink of tears.

These observations were ultimately momentary though. In reality, after a brief pause of about thirty seconds to allow the people below to get a good look at the scum before them, Habari pulled the switch.

The eyes of the statue glowed, shining bright and grabbing the attention of the condemned as they looked towards it. Some closed their eyes, perhaps in some vain attempt to escape from their current situation by separating from reality. Others looked head on, looks of angry acceptance dusting their eyes and lips as their end drew near.

A blast. Quick and painful. The people saw as the gallery of rogue witches all quickly lost their lives to the stone. Screams of pain filled the arena.

There were fifty-seven left.

Forty-nine.

Thirty-eight.

Twenty-six.

Fifteen.

Two.

… there were none left.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the official reports, this event is merely known as the petrifications of November 25th, 1990. But as the years went on, and memories of this day grew silent, it adopted another name amongst the people of the Isles. One far more fitting in their eyes. The Dawn of Stone.


End file.
